He seemed to have spoken to the deaf air. The girl sat dumb, looking over and beyond him.
Rotwang took a chair; he sat down astride it, crossed his arms over the back and looked at the girl. He laughed gloomily.
"You two poor children!" he said, "to have dared to pit yourselves against Joh Fredersen! Nobody can reproach you for it; you do not know him and do not know what you are doing. But the son should know the father. I do not believe that there is one man who can boast ever having got the better of Joh Fredersen: You could more easily bend to your I will the inscrutable God, who is said to rule the world, than Joh Fredersen..."
The girl sat like a statue, immovable.
"What will you do, Maria, if Joh Fredersen takes you and, your love so seriously that he comes to you and says: Give
